BYU Women Earn First Victory Of Amber Whiting Era
Nov 18, 2022, 10:15 PM | Updated: 10:39 pm
BYU women's basketball defeated Washington State to give Amber Whiting the first win of her head coaching career at BYU. (Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo)
(Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo)
PROVO, Utah – BYU women’s basketball has ended a five-game losing streak dating back to last season.
On the Northshore at the campus of BYU-Hawaii in Laie, BYU defeated Washington State, 65-56, to give head coach Amber Whiting her first career victory at the collegiate level.
The win over the Cougs from the Palouse improves BYU’s record to 1-3 overall.
THAT’S A WIN 💪 pic.twitter.com/lmWWJM4Trb
— BYU Women's Hoops (@byuwbb) November 19, 2022
A fun tidbit on Whiting’s first career win, she’s the second coach in BYU basketball history to get the first career win over Washington State. The other was BYU men’s basketball coach Dave Rose. He defeated the Cougars in Pullman back on November 22, 2005. So if Coach Whiting’s career follows a similar trajectory to Rose, there’s a lot of success in her future.
BYU guard Nani Falatea led the way in scoring with 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting, with eight rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Falatea, a former East High graduate, is emerging as one of the top players in Whiting’s program.
Falatea logged 38 minutes of action in the victory over Washington State. That wasn’t the highest number of minutes logged by a BYU player. Kaylee Smiler played all 40 minutes for BYU.
Whiting’s starting five accounted for 169 of the available 200 minutes played in the win. Three players came off the bench, with guard Arielle Mackey-Williams the lone reserve to see significant playing time. She played 23 minutes off the bench.
Preseason All-WCC forward Lauren Gustin did what she does best, record a double-double. The senior frontcourt player scored 15 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in 37 minutes.
The heavy usage for BYU’s starters is noteworthy as the Cougars are in a multi-team event, the North Shore Showcase. BYU will be back in action on Saturday evening when they face the Troy Trojans from the Sun Belt Conference (6 p.m. MT).
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
